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Save money by saving energy and water

Saving energy and water is a priority for households across Europe. We know customers are motivated to improve energy and water efficiency but the process can be complicated.

By combining the best products with the right support and information we can help more customers cut energy use, reduce costs and make their home a better place to live. Our long term aspiration is to help customers have zero carbon or energy positive homes.

We’re also making progress in our own operations – reducing energy use and expenditure and working towards a substantial cut in our carbon footprint.

Our targets:

For our customers

Enable a 50% reduction in customer energy use through our products, services and advice by 2025.

Enable a 50% improvement in customer water efficiency through our products, services and advice by 2025.

For our business

Reduce absolute carbon emissions from buildings and transport by 25% from a 2010/11 baseline by 2020.

32%

Our energy saving products enable customers to reduce home energy use by 32%

91%

91% of the light bulbs we sell are energy efficient LED

45%

Our products help customers cut water use by 45%

16%

We have cut our absolute operational carbon footprint by 16% since 2010/11

What we’re doing

Helping customers to reduce their energy use

We offer a range of energy saving products and services from insulation to light bulbs and efficient appliances. Altogether, our energy saving products enable customers to reduce their home energy use by almost a third - 32%. We are working towards 50% by 2025.

Improving customer water efficiency

We are improving the water efficiency of our ranges including our taps, toilets and appliances. Our current water-using products enable customers to improve water efficiency by 45%. Our target is 50% by 2025.

Reducing our own carbon footprint

We have cut our absolute operational carbon footprint by 16% since 2010/11 and aim for 25% by 2020. We’re focusing on improving energy efficiency, tackling emissions from transport and increasing on-site renewable generation. We have moved to 100% purchased electricity from renewable sources in the UK (around 30% of our total electricity use) and will extend this to other markets.

A low carbon business

We aim to decarbonise our business, so we can grow while reducing our carbon footprint. We’re investing to install renewables on our sites, generating over 6,000,000 kWh per year and delivering over £1m in financial benefit to the business each year.

Inside our stores, we’re prioritising energy efficiency. We have rolled out LED lighting to 56% of our property estate and aim for 100% by 2020. Some operating companies have made even more progress, for example 86% of our stores in Poland now have LED.

Our low carbon locations include:

Zero-energy Trade Counter at Screwfix: Our first net zero-energy Trade Counter store in Peterborough is expected to generate more energy than it consumes thanks to its air source heat pump powered by a solar PV installation.

Swindon distribution centre: Our distribution centre at Swindon has a solar PV installation and a biomass boiler powered by waste wood from our stores – reducing energy use by 42%. In 2018, we will be installing a commercial battery storage system which enables us to harvest and use more of our solar PV power, releasing pressure on the grid at peak times.

Cribbs Causeway store B&Q: We’ve reduced electricity use by 53% per year at Cribbs Causeway through the use of LED lighting and a solar PV installation.

Dax store, Brico Dépôt France: Our Dax store has 100% LED lighting, is highly insulated and uses efficient heating and air conditioning systems. During 2018, we will add solar PV panels and be the first store in Europe to apply for Net Zero Energy certification.

Making projects easier for customers in France

Improving home energy performance can be complex so we offer advice and installation services to make things simpler for customers.

Castorama and Brico Dépôt France stock a wide range of energy efficiency products and plan ranges so that the majority of products are eligible for government subsidies – reducing costs.

Castorama France is piloting an energy advisory service that helps customers plan projects, access subsidies and hire an installer. The service is now available in nine stores.

Brico Dépôt France customers can use its Prime Energie service to access government subsidies for energy saving products. It also participates in “Chéque Energie”, which helps cover the cost of heating bills for the 4 million people in France experiencing fuel poverty. Brico Dépôt has piloted the initiative since 2016, benefiting almost 180 households to date. It will be rolled out to all its stores in 2018

LED leads the way

We’ve come a long way in helping customers save energy in their homes. Take our light bulbs.

We’re switching to 100% LED so whatever lighting our customers need, they can benefit from this highly efficient technology at affordable prices. We’ve reached 91% LED for our unified range of light bulbs and our LED products generated sales of over £200 million last year.

New taps cut kitchen water use

A lot of water is used in the kitchen, so redesigning our kitchen ranges provides a great opportunity to help customers save water. Our new unified range of kitchen taps, for example, come fitted with a regulator limiting water flow to 8 litres per minute compared with up to 20 litres for taps without regulators.

We also worked closely with our suppliers on specifying and testing the taps and their components. We are so confident in the quality of the new range that we have guaranteed all Cooke and Lewis taps for 10 years, compared with an average two years for our previous ranges and for many other brands on the market.

We’ve redesigned the packaging too, reducing materials use by 30% across the range and saving 45 tonnes of packaging material each year. This also means more taps can be transported in each load, reducing freight costs and fuel use. The packs are easy to open for our customers and widely recyclable.

Helping customers choose a good home at Castorama Russia

We want to make it easier for customers who are interested in sustainability to identify our most sustainable products and to get information and support to improve their home.

Castorama Russia is using its Facebook and social media sites to engage customers on the benefits of a more sustainable home. Its campaign, ‘Choice for a good home’, included ideas and tips to help customers plan an energy efficient bathroom as well as information on the benefits of energy efficient lighting and sustainable products. The campaign has reached over 422,000 customers so far.

Castorama Russia has also introduced point of sale materials to highlight sustainable home products at its refurbished Elektrostal store and the campaign will be rolled out to a further four stores during 2017.

Antibes - An energy positive store

Castorama’s Antibes store, re-opened in 2015, is both our largest store and our first to be energy positive.

The main building meets passive design standards – requiring less than 8kWh/m2 energy to run. Combined with a large rooftop solar PV panel this means the main building will be ‘Energy Positive’ (as recognised by the French Thermal Regulations 2012) based on its annual average energy consumption. This means the energy generated from the photovoltaics will be greater than the primary energy consumed by the store for heating, general lighting, cooling, ventilation and water heating. A screen in store shows customers how much renewable energy is being generated each day.

Other features include double insulation, a lighting system which combines natural light with 100% LED lighting, a highly efficient (adiabatic) heating and cooling system and rainwater recycling. Sustainability features for customers include a living wall in the garden centre, an eco home installation and the Casto Lab where customers can use specialist tools and share information.

Customer benefit:

A better place to shop, with more support for home improvement projects

Radom, a more sustainable store for Poland

Castorama Poland opened its first eco-learning store in 2016 at Radom in central Poland.

The store is energy efficient, and is expected to consume 20% less energy a year than the average Castorama Poland store. Energy saving features include thicker insulation, LED lighting and a heat recovery system that utilises natural cooling techniques. The store also uses heat pumps, a low carbon method for heating water and plans to install photovoltaic panels. Rainwater is harvested and used to water the plants around the store. The store is engaging customers and staff on sustainability with in-store information on products for a sustainable home. Customers can return their waste electronic items to the store for recycling.

Prioritising waste management at Brico Depot France

Brico Depot France made waste reduction a focus area during 2016, improving the information and incentives provided to logistics managers encouraging them to increase recycling and reduce the costs of waste disposal.

A new template was developed for each of the 119 stores in the programme, tracking the recycling rate and waste disposal costs. Monthly reports are reviewed by the sustainability team as well as logistics managers, store and regional managers and waste suppliers. Bonuses for logistics managers are now linked to the recycling rate at each store. The stores involved have now reached an average 81% recycling rate. Brico Depot also ran an information campaign at its head office with new recycling bins and briefings for staff resulting in a 28% increase in recycling.

Achieving zero waste to landfill at Screwfix

Screwfix's approach to waste management means that it has achieved zero waste to landfill from its stores and distribution centres

Waste is sorted at stores and transported in Screwfix's own fleet of delivery vehicles back to its distribution centre. Here recyclables are sorted and sold onto recycling firms, generating revenues. General waste is compacted and sent to an energy-from-waste plant. The stores no longer need a traditional waste collection service, reducing costs and space needed to store waste.

Green design at Merthyr Tydfil

B&Q's store at Merthyr Tydfil is the first retail store in the UK to use a transpiring roof, which harvests heat from the sun to warm the store's interior.

It also incorporates a green sedum roof, rainwater harvesting and LED lighting, and 100% responsibly sourced timber was used in construction. B&Q worked closely with the landlord to agree best sustainability targets for the building.

Business benefits:

Lower energy, gas and water bills

Sustainability benefits:

Designed to significantly reduce gas used for heating and CO2 emissions

Around 50% of water used expected to be provided by rainwater harvesting